Solipsism, tricky blue rare spell, not counter or card draw

[walkingdude]

Solipsism
U
Enchantment
At the start of each player’s upkeep that player puts a land they control on the bottom of their library and reveals cards from the top of their library until they reach a land. Put that land into play and put all other cards revealed this way on the bottom of that player’s library.
I think I see the world, but maybe the real world is completely different.

Current Wording

Brain in a vat
U
Creature -- Brain
1/1
1U: Target land's owner puts target land they control on the bottom of their library and reveals cards from the top of their library until they reach a land. Put that land into play under its owner’s control and shuffle all other cards revealed this way into that player’s library.

I think I see the world, but maybe the real world is completely different.



I’m thinking of this as a rare blue spell that polymorphs a land at the start of each players turn. Not really sure what it would be good for, but its got the sort of trickiness, mutability, and change that make it very blue.

Possible other options that I considered and was unsure about {and so want to ask you guys for input on } were
A: Raising the cost and making it polymorph all lands you control
Or
B:  Giving it some ability like “Remove a blue card in your hand from the game: put this directly into play under your controlâ€? which would let you play it as an instant so you got the first use out of it. It would also let you play it in response to a turn 1 shop sphere which would bust up the shop on their next upkeep and even things up.
EDIT
or
C: put this on a dude and up power level but make it more removable

[Matt]

I think it should shuffle the library, not stack the bottom. That way people aren't tempted to try and stack things in a certain order, which can take forever in tournaments.

[Denney The Third]

This card would be useful for cycling away dead wastelands in hope of a volcanic  or tropical. Or maybe for getting a waste to take care fo that orchard.

Also if someone first turn orchards you this will make this orchard go away. I see lots of potential use. However the reason the one blue cost is good is because your opponent can do nasty things to your lands as well.

Also I agree with shuffle the library, I know when i stack cards from Charblecher people get pretty annoyed.

[Norm4eva]

Probably insert some kind of 'If they do' clause so that landless decks don't just shuffle themselves time and again.

At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player puts a land they control on the bottom of its owner's library.  If they do, that player reveals cards from the top of his or her library until they reveal a land card.  That player puts that land into play, then shuffles his or her library.

[Alfred]

Any card that requires a shuffle or stacking every turn (including an opponent's) should be seriously reconsidered.

[walkingdude]

am changing the card to avoid the stacking problem

[Norm4eva]

No, that doesn't fix anything.  You're still shuffling every turn.  It's not the volume that concerns anyone it's the frequency.  Remember those Whirlpool cards?  They thought the concept was unique and interesting, it turned out to be a dull, game-extending process.  Playing with 4+ fetchlands and a set of tutors is bad enough.  This card makes EVERYONE shuffle, EVERY upkeep.  It's a large time investment.

[walkingdude]

Well, it seems like there are some fairly strong objections to an effect that makes a mandatory shuffle each turn. On the other hand, I do like the polymorph land ability and want to do something with it. If it can’t be automatic then I need to make it an activated ability with a cost. Since activated abilities are more controllable I need to balance the card by making other aspects weaker. I think attaching the ability to a body that can be killed will be a good way to balance it.

How about something like this as a rough draft to work from

Name
U
Creature -- Type
1/1
U, discard a nonland card: polymorph target land, shuffle rather than stack to prevent abuse.

[Jacob Orlove]

I'd rather see that activation cost just 1U. It's a cloudpost hoser, but that's no reason to make it unplayably bad.

[walkingdude]

Hmm I was afraid of making it too good. Although maybe I’m being paranoid. I was fearing 1 tropical island 4 land grants and 1 academy in a deck, where if you draw any of those six cards and this dude you get an academy next turn.  Although that might be too contrived to be any good so I’ll try the suggested changes.

[Bram]

'Brain In A Vat'?

That's so weird, it's almost brilliant. The flavor text is too 'The Matrix' for my tastes, though?

[Norm4eva]

Under current wording you could get an infinite mana loop with Brain, Academy, 1 x-land, and 4 artifacts.  Play it with Horn of Greed and draw your deck, then Stroke for a lot.  I dunno if this concerns you per se but it's something that jumped out at me.

[Jacob Orlove]

Yeah, this should tap.

That name is bizarre, and there's probably better ways to do the flavor text.

[Bram]

Actually, sans tapping, it already works with 3 artifacts and academy to create infi mana. You don't even need the 4th artifact or another land. Just reshuffle academy and have no other lands in your deck

[Alfred]

Brain in a Jar would probably make more sense than brain in a vat, because vats aren't usually transparent, thus making the "seeing the world" thing less applicable. Also, how can a brain fight? I would make this like 0/1. This would be even cooler if it was legendary and it was "<person's name>'s Brain". If it was legendary, you could boost the power level of the card.

[Ephraim]

Must fight urge...to suggest "Hitler's Brain." Can't resist. Noooo!

Anyow, I definitely like the idea of making this a Legendary Creature with a unique name. Using a personality from Magic past would be really freaking cool -- something like "Alexi's Brain."

[Bram]

I doubt we need brains as comic relief. We're not making Unhinged II here  

[walkingdude]

I’m not too worried about the infinite academy combo. The most compact one posted so far was Bram’s which involved this dude, 3 artifacts and an academy in play. That’s a 5 card combo, that involves a restricted card, that doesn’t even win the game by itself, gets hosed by wastelands, gets hosed by removal, and imposes the design constraint on your deck that you need to play with only 1 land.  It’s solidly worse than grim power and no one uses that any more. Because of that, I don’t think it needs a tap ability to balance its power level. If people think a tap is needed for flavor reasons, I’d be willing to do that.

Also, name and flavor are always changeable. I figured that since when the card is in play the land and set up of the world would be changing constantly that a flavorful way to represent that would be something that’s classically subject to lots of change. For example a brain in a vat would have the world change whenever the person/machine sending sensory input into the brain wanted to. Also the idea of brains in vats is a classic example in all sorts of philosophical problems. Last, disembodied brains are just cool.

[Norm4eva]

Spock's Brain?  (worst episode of TOS ever)
Yeah the infinite combo is dumb but I saw it and thought I'd point it out.  It doesn't have to tap necessarily either; it's a very interesting ability.

[Bram]

Walkingdude: agreed on all counts.

Also the idea of brains in vats is a classic example in all sorts of philosophical problems. Last, disembodied brains are just cool.

If we want to somehow keep the 'brain in a jar'  thing for this, I guess I would have less problems with the term 'Disembodied Brain.'

It sounds slightly less comical, while still retaining the same flavor.

[walkingdude]

I’m a mechanics guy at heart so I’m for whatever flavor gets the card into the master list. I thought the brain thing was pretty cool, but I’m not set on it.
That said, it seems like no one has any mechanical objections to the card at this point, so all we need to do is settle on name and flavor text and I can start the clock.

[Bram]

Rather than 'reach' a land, you would 'reveal' a land.